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Shutting Up Shop: The decline of the traditional small shop | 
 enlarge | Creators: Lou Mcgrath, John Londei
Publisher: Dewi Lewis Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $40.00
Buy New: $29.20
You Save: $10.80 (27%)
New (8) Used (1) from $29.20
Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 711306
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 144
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.5
Dimensions (in): 10.3 x 10 x 0.8
ISBN: 1904587461
EAN: 9781904587460
ASIN: 1904587461
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
During the early 1970s, John Londei photographed traditional small shops throughout the United Kingdom. Each is unique, the range diverse: from tea to tobacco, flowers to condoms. Londei also recorded their stories, vividly told through anecdotes and interviews with the staff.
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| Customer Reviews:
Past their time July 31, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
John Londei presents a wonderful and loving photo tribute to what Napoleon rightly said in 1776: 'England is a nation of shopkeepers'. The sixty shops featured were photographed mainly in the 1980s and mostly show the front of the premises with the owners standing proudly in the entrance. What struck me about these photos is the richness of color (the 200dpi printing obviously helps) depth and their simplicity. The contents of the photos are so fascinating that there was no need to do anything more photographically to tell the story.
There is a story to tell though about each of these shops and what I like about the book is the trouble John Lonei has gone to. As well as the lovely photos he interviewed the shop owners and staff, this text is on the left hand page facing each photo. All this was done more than a decade ago so Londei, in 2007, returned to each place to see what had happened to the shop. This Afterword fills seventeen pages at the back of the book mixing text with a thumbnail of the original and 2007 photos. Predictably many of the original shops had changed hands or gone completely.
I've looked through the book several times and it is obvious, as Londei says in his intro, that many of the shops are past their prime, they have a faded beauty and it shows but why should the owners, mostly elderly, spend money to keep up with merchandising trends when the investment would probably not increase their business. The 2007 Afterword photos reveal the results.
Shutting Up Shop is the perfect photobook and a heartwarming tribute to the nation of shopkeepers where service came first.
***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'cusomer images' under the cover.
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